Terp Young Scholars

July 8-27, 2018

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Engineering

BIOE160: Biopharmaceutical Production

Ever wonder how human insulin can be made from E.coli? Since the 1980s, biotech companies have been making medical drugs using biotechnology. These companies use living cells to produce proteins, antibodies, and nucleic acids for therapeutic purposes. This course takes students through a biotechnology “campaign” where they will transform E.coli into a green fluorescent protein factory. Students work in teams, simulating a start-up biotech company. Teams will attempt to optimize expression of proteins, run industrial-sized fermentors, perform protein analysis and separations, and purify their own biopharmaceuticals, on time and under budget. This course focuses on the basics of recombinant DNA technology, as applied to biopharmaceutical manufacturing, in a classroom setting. Students will work through a “production campaign” including all key steps of manufacturing a protein product. Course Prerequisite: Students must complete high school biology and chemistry before enrolling in this course.